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Suggestion - Go online!

Now that resumes are increasingly sent and read online, your resume can become a miniature portal into 'value added' information that you can leverage to gain the attention of prospective employers. Consider putting up a vanity website (a good quality, serious website providing information about yourself).

Put your resume on the website as an HTML or PDF document, and include the link to the resume in your email signatures. In turn, put a link to the website on the resume so that prospective employers can click on the electronic copy to 'drill down' into additional information about you.

This opt-in approach lets employers get much more information about you than they have about other prospects, but doesn't force them to fight through a lengthy, unusable resume.

Other tips for sending resumes online:

• Create the resume in Microsoft Word and save copies in Rich Text Format (RTF), Acrobat PDF, and raw text.
• Clean up the formats in your raw text resume to ensure that it can be read easily.
• Use standard fonts (Arial, Times, Courier).
• Include date and version information so you can track vintage.
• Include a 'personal' email address that does not belong to your current employer.
• Make sure your personal email address is 'clean' ... nothing that's going to be embarrassing or makes you look unprofessional.

Online portfolios

If you are in a creative line of work, or one that has distinct work products, consider putting some form of portfolio online. This may be easy or difficult, depending on your line of work.

For web developers, graphic illustrators and technical writers, it's simply a matter of providing online links to websites or samples of work, and providing some explanatory text.

For workers who don't create paper or online content, an online portfolio requires a little lateral thinking. Identify all the work products that you have created during your education, apprenticeship, or previous positions. Examples include:

• a landscaper who has designed and landscaped a series of gardens of which they are particularly proud. Take photographs or sketches of the designs and finished gardens and put them online as a portfolio.
• a software systems engineer who has designed a software product. Put together screen captures, specifications, software architecture maps, and testimonials from users.
• an architectural technologist who has worked on a number of blueprints. Put excerpts from the blueprints online, showing areas where specific skill was required.

Include some words introducing the portfolio items and talking around the work: what challenges were overcome, what goals were met, what lessons were learned.

How InternetEdit can help!

InternetEdit offers a range of services that might be invaluable to you during your preparations. We have writers and editors who are expert in the design and editing of resumes. We can tailor your resume for specific industries, skill levels, and parts of the world. We can even prepare your resume for online distribution, giving you a locked, easily viewed and printed PDF version that you can put on the web or email to prospects.

Having trouble with a cover letter? Send us what you've got so far and let us craft it into a highly effective, professional introduction.

We can also help you with your online portfolio. If you've built one yourself, we can edit the online content to ensure quality. If you don't know how to get started, we can help you construct one to meet your specific needs.

Using email or our web portal, you get your resumes, cover letters or portfolio copy back in hours, not days.

Get started - it's easy!

You can submit your resume or cover letter for editing through our standard document upload portal using the buttons on the left side of the screen. Or you can just click here to jump right to our Resume Upload Form.

If you don't yet have a resume, enter information about yourself and your educational and work history in a text file or Word file and upload that to us. We'll use that information to get started on your new resume.

Once we receive your file, we'll contact you by email to confirm your request and give you a delivery time. We may also request additional information from you for inclusion in the resume.

To get information about help with your portfolio, contact us with your requirements and we'll tell you exactly what we can do for you.